We are the Griots
Opening Monday, February 13, 5:30pm
To February 18
Anna Leonowens Gallery, 1891 Granville Street
Jade Byard Peek can meet an hour after the interview request. She’s running on a tight schedule but that afternoon she has a rare hour to talk, maybe the only one she’ll have that week. In addition to her studies at NSCAD (a degree in art history focusing on Black and Indigenous methodologies, social criticism, art education and curatorial practice), Byard Peek—a Mi’kmaw and Black woman of trans experience—is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer; sits on the NSCAD student union and is the provincial and national women’s representative for the Canadian Federation of Students; is a community activist; a frequent panelist and guest speaker in universities and conferences; and is currently co-organizing a Black Lives Matter reading group at the Khyber Centre for the Arts.
Recently she’s taken on the role of curator for the upcoming exhibition We are the Griots (Anna Leonowens Gallery, February 13-18). Featuring works by Byard Peek (who has a background in painting and performance) and collaborators Michael Davies-Cole and Bria Miller, the exhibition will centre on contemporary Black experiences framed by Afro-Indigenous (Black Nova Scotian) histories. According to Byard Peek, it’s also the first exhibition of solely Afro-Indigenous artists that Halifax has seen since the 1990s.
“I want Afro-Indigenous people to be proud of our culture and proud of our cultural production. I’ve seen a lot of young Black folk turn away from art,” she says, stressing the importance of Afro-Indigenous visibility in the arts. “I want to inspire people to go into the arts, and say this is what you can do with art-making.”
But for Byard Peek visibility also means a widespread representation of Black Canadian history in our education systems. “Black history”—in Canada—”is skewed, it’s misrepresented, it’s distorted, and it’s from a Euro-Canadian and British Canadian legacy of saving refugees. Specifically loyalists of the American revolution,” she says. “Africville gets called Canada’s hidden racist secret. In my community it’s not a secret, and the repercussions of that are ongoing.”
From both African Nova Scotian and Indigenous ancestries, the artists in We are the Griots see the upcoming Canada 150 events as a time to confront these skewed histories. Indigenous activists and allies across the country are already pushing against the colonial narratives of the anniversary, but Byard Peek hasn’t seen any call-out from the government asking for Black perspectives or seeking to showcase Black arts. “That’s the reason I wanted to do this show in the first place,” says Byard Peek. “I was frustrated at NSCAD not learning Black Nova Scotian art, our history should be represented.”
Reclaiming the term “griot,” an anglicized French term for West African knowledge-keepers, musicians, storytellers and historians, the artists in We are the Griots position themselves in that role: showcasing artworks that speak to Black Nova Scotian lived experiences and bringing underrepresented histories to the forefront.
Related Stories
New Art 2017: Going Gonzago
New Art 2017: Raven Davis leads the tough conversations
New Art 2017: Xiaoyi Dong says art is international
New Art 2017: Abby Bent
Editing the way journalists write about social justice
February’s must-see exhibits
902 Man Up finds healing within
A roundtable discussion with the vanguard of Halifax activism
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2017.
Well, nobody else is commenting on this article, so here is my third try. First two attempts have been censured.
So let’s try this in baby steps. Will I get censured at third time for simply pasting words from the article?
Here goes: “a Mi’kmaw and Black woman of trans experience”
Ok, so far so good.
Now, since the author found it necessary to describe Peek as “a Mi’kmaw and Black woman of trans experience”, is this because it will make us sympathize with her on three levels?
Am I still here…?
This looks to be an important and inspiring exhibition, and congratulations to the artists on bringing this event together. Byard Peek however is mistaken in their assumption that this is the first exhibition of solely Black artists that Halifax has seen since the 1990s. Very wrong indeed. As a visual arts curator, and someone who spent a good part of my creative career in Halifax, I can count on more than the fingers of both hands the number of ground-breaking shows and important work by dedicated artists and cultural workers that has been presented in the city from the 1990s and beyond. Respect to David Woods with the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia who has been active to present works by African Canadian artists for more than 30 years, as an example presenting a show called “Inspire” at the Chase Gallery in 2014 among other ongoing projects too numerous to mention. There was also the work of the Sistervisions Collective who I worked with from the late 1990s to early 2000s, and we presented a major group exhibition called “Sistervisions: Through Our Eyes” at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in 2001 and showed together in numerous galleries. Not to mention Kim Cain who has re-envisioned our artist collective with “Sister Revisions” with recent projects at the historic Kwacha House. We should not have short memories when it comes to the cultural production of these creators who are still active and recognize that perhaps it would be wiser to move away from this idea of “firsts” to recognize that Black folks have been producing and creating in the Maritimes and across this nations for hundreds of years.
Hey thank you for bringing this up Express4life I was misquoted, I am versed with major art production that has been happening over the past few decades. Although “when it comes to shows at major academic-esqe galleries AGNS, and Anna Leonowens gallery there hasn’t been an AFRO-INDIGENOUS detokenized curated show since the 1990’s”. We must respect Kim Cain as well as David Woods and BANNS, and the ongoing work. Thank you for highlighting, although when it comes to black nova Scotia art production being recognized in canada, that hasn’t actually happened in a positive light, we must not forget about the “in the heart of Africa” exhibition
Thanks for the response Jade. Yes the mainstream media has to create the catchy tag lines, so I do get that. It is so important to break new ground, but I do feel this type of hierarchical positioning tends to erase the contributions of artists who may not have received the exposure or even have opportunities to exhibit, and so it still discounts the fact that even though they may not have received the attention, we shouldn’t assume there hasn’t been creative production or presentation of Afro-Indigenous art for over 20 years in Halifax! As cultural producers from marginalized communities, this kind of rhetoric works against us I feel, particularly when we present in academic type of institutions, which are still largely entrenched in their colonial attitudes and who feel that our work somehow does not “belong”, that it is a rarity, or that we need validation from them in order to have an impact, which I don’t feel we do. Also the ROM, who recently went on record to publicly apologize for the “Into the Heart of Africa” fiasco, this actually was not a show of contemporary art, rather an exhibit of artifacts taken from the continent by Canadian missionaries and soldiers. We need to think less in terms of numbers perhaps of exhibitions, but how we are positioned within these mainstream frameworks. I do recognize that Black Nova Scotia is often left out of discussions on Black Canada which is a continual source of disappointment, despite the work of people like George Eliot Clarke and Afua Cooper. It is great work you and your fellow griots are doing! Much Respect.